We know there is a lot of work to do, but first things first, we need to expose the blank canvas that this Mercedes Vario 814d is.
As this was an Ex-Police Van, it was once fully kitted out with gear, although that has since been removed, the heavy duty racking is still in place. These were solid and bolted in, so not a quick job to remove, as we couldn’t remove these fully as the only way it would come out was through the back.
Exactly where the great big tailgate that doesn’t work was in the way. So, the tailgate went, and then the racking followed.
Once we had an empty van, it was time to remove the ply lining from the walls and ceiling, and the flooring to expose the chassis. This showed us the extent of the damage and showed us exactly what we had bought.
Turns out an absolute gem.
Seems there will be little replacement at the moment, just a case of revitalising what’s already there. We started with a couple of coatings of biodegradable TRF (Traffic Film Remover) and used a petrol powered jet wash to get to get a majority of the surface rust and dirt off.
Next up was a wire brush on the chassis to remove any flaky paint and rust, just to get back to a solid surface. Finished with an air compressor to remove any outstanding flakiness and dust out of all the awkward areas, also doubling up to remove any excess water to avoid rusting in the future.
To give this a nice finish, we painted on the rust converter, once this has dried, we sprayed it with underseal to stop the rust from ever coming back.
As mentioned, being an Ex-Police Van, this comes with a lot of wiring for things we would never use, such as the siren and the power from an old diesel generator. Check out below how much came out, we’re already feeling more cleansed!
With a lot of this removed, we thought now would be a good time to see if this beast starts. So, we recharged both the batteries and lo and behold, it started for the first time since its MOT! Definitely reassuring that we’re working the right direction.
We finished up with the removal of the door cards, window winders, and began to think how we’re going to address the lack of central locking, but that’s for another day!
